It hasn't exactly been an easy road to the Finals for the Celtics.
In the first round of the playoffs, Boston faced Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. While they made light work of the Nets, Giannis Antetokounmpo's Bucks pushed the Celtics to seven games in the second round. Then, Jimmy Butler's Heat did the same in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Their reward? A Finals matchup with a Warriors team that is led by Stephen Curry.
A two-time MVP with eight All-Star selections, eight All-NBA selections, three championships and two scoring titles, Curry's credentials speak for themselves. He's fresh off of winning the inaugural Western Conference Finals MVP award, leading the Warriors to their sixth Finals appearance in eight seasons with averages of 23.8 points, 7.4 assists and 6.6 rebounds per game.
The Celtics had the best defensive rating in the NBA this season. Are they equipped to slow down Curry?
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Who on the Celtics will guard Stephen Curry?
This isn't complicated: Marcus Smart will likely be the primary defender on Curry in the Finals.
Smart was named Defensive Player of the Year this season, making him the first guard to win the award since Gary Payton in 1996. He's built like a brick wall at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, he's tough as nails, he's highly disruptive and, well, he isn't afraid of anyone.
Not that a single player can shut down Curry, but there aren't many who match up with him as well as Smart does. Smart is well aware of how locked in you have to be to keep up with Curry — more on that below — and his size makes him incredibly difficult to beat off the dribble.
The numbers point to Smart having some success against Curry as well.
Steph Curry when defended by Marcus Smart in the last 5 seasons:
— StatMuse (@statmuse) June 1, 2022
— 30 points in 6 games
— 37% shooting, 30% from three
— 3 assists, 7 turnovers pic.twitter.com/jgjMHzAxgA
Of course, guarding Curry takes much more than one player, so it won't only be Smart to slow him down.
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Defending Stephen Curry isn't a one-man job
Earlier this season, Clippers star Paul George had a good response when asked how difficult it is to defend Curry.
"It just takes, honestly, a whole five players to have an awareness of where he's at," George explained, "because one step and he's out of there, and he shoots it so quick that you can't allow him to get free."
Not only does Curry get his shot off quickly, but he's capable of shooting from deep, and — this is the important one — he never stops moving.
Golden State runs a motion-based offense that has Curry fly off of and set a relentless amount of screens. Defenders can take their foot off the gas against most superstars when they don't have the ball in their hands, but guarding Curry requires everyone to know where he is at all times and move on a string.
If they lose sight of him for even a split second, Curry will make them pay more often than not. And if they pay too much attention to him, everyone else on Golden State will eat. The margin of error against Curry and the Warriors is razor-thin.
“Getting sleep in this series is huge, man,” Smart told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports ahead of the Finals. “Because you know they’re going to make you run. You have to put on your track shoes and you have to be ready. So for me, it’s about being able to get my rest and a good night’s sleep.
"My conditioning is there to keep up with these guys, but you have to be fresh for them.”
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Even with a good night's rest, having Smart fight around every single screen the Warriors set for Curry is a nearly impossible task, so the Celtics will likely switch a lot of the actions he's involved in. (The Celtics have been one of the switchiest teams in the NBA all season long anyway.) That's why the likes of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and even Grant Williams could spend a decent amount of time matched up with Curry in this series.
One thing the Celtics do have going for them at every position is size and length, and their bigs are mobile enough to not get totally embarrassed by Curry on an island. Especially when Curry has it rolling, it wouldn't be a surprise if the Celtics look to double or trap Curry to get the ball out of his hands and force someone else to beat them.
As TSN's Stephen Noh wrote, Curry is going to have to work for everything against this Celtics defense in a way we haven't yet seen in these playoffs.
